This Wheel’s on Fire is an exhibition of shared enthusiasms. The title of the exhibition comes from Bob Dylan and Rick Danko’s 1967 channeling of the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel’s writings (c. 570 AD).
Aaron Angell’s ceramic sculptures were produced at his Troy Town Art Pottery in London. This ‘studio pottery’ is his self-styled ‘psychedelic’ re-imagining of a mid twentieth century grouping of artisanal ceramicists. Amy Sherlock, writing in Frieze Masters (2014), describes how Angell’s ‘… weirdly wonderful work is steeped in the folk and the folkloric: his sculptural dioramas are like mushroom-induced visions of a bucolic England of myth and monster.’
Angell (b. 1987) lives and works in London. He has recently held solo exhibitions of his work at Studio Voltaire, London (2015), SWG3, Glasgow (2013) and at Focal Point, Southend-on-Sea (2011) and his work has been included in significant group exhibitions at Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2014), Palais de Tokyo, Paris and CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2013). He is currently participating in the British Art Show at Leeds City Art Gallery. In 2016 he will hold a solo exhibition of his work at Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow as part of the Glasgow International and his work will be included in a major survey exhibition at Tate St. Ives.
Michael Bauer and Charlie Hammond’s print edition was produced for their exhibition ‘Euro Savage’ (2010) at Linn Lühn. Their artistic collaboration emerged as a result of the curatorial work on the exhibition. Hammond and Bauer created the series of four silkscreen prints (‘Euro 1 – 4’) together in Glasgow. Here, elements of both artists’ works, for example Hammond’s wheel forms and Bauer’s facial fragments, enter entirely new relationships.
Michael Bauer (b. 1973) lives and works in New York. He has recently held exhibitions of his work at Alison Jacques Gallery, London (2015) and Lisa Cooley Gallery, New York (2014). He has also had solo exhibitions at Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar (2011), Marquis Dance Hall, Istanbul (2010), Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2009) and Kunstverein Bonn (2007).
Charlie Hammond (b.1979) lives and works in Glasgow. He has recently held solo exhibitions of his work at Lisa Cooley, New York (2014) and Galerie Kamm, Berlin (2012). His work was also included in ‘Generation’, a major survey of art produced in Scotland at Tramway, Glasgow (2014).
Will Benedict and Henning Bohl are both well known for their individual practices as well as for collaborations with their peers. ‘Bloat’, 2014, was produced in Paris at the Fondation Lafayette and combines found material sourced by both artists. Bohl makes use of archetypal imagery taken from websites and fanzine publications related to Gothic, fantasy and role-playing games from the 1970s and 1990s. Benedict’s imagery includes posters and invitations he created for a bar he established in Vienna and exhibitions of his work at Galerie Balice Hertling, Paris and the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Benedict (b. 1978) lives and works in Paris. He recently held solo exhibitions of his work at Overduin & Co, Los Angeles, Bortalami Gallery, New York and at Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen (2015). Other recent exhibitions were held at Galerie Balice Hertling, Paris and Dépendance, Brussels (2014); Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg and Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2013) and Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt/Main and Gió Marconi, Milan (2012).
Bohl (b.1975) lives and works in Hamburg. He recently held an exhibition with Sergei Tcherepnin at the Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston (2015). Other recent solo exhibitions of his work were held at Galerie Karin Guenther, Hamburg (2015), Rob Tufnell, London (2014) Kunsthalle Nürnberg and Berlinische Galerie (2013) Pro Choice, Vienna (2012) and Kunstverein in Hamburg (2011). His work was included in the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2013).
William Copley, or Cply, was initially a gallerist who built up an extensive collection. Through his friendship with surrealists like René Magritte and Max Ernst as well as with Marcel Duchamp however, he eventually became and artist. Copley’s paintings and drawings humorously addressed not only the traditions of Dada and Surrealism but the then emergent Pop Art as well. His works are full of life, humor and eros. Copley’s free and unorthodox spirit has long been appreciated by connoisseurs and artists alike, and to this day, he still exerts a strong influence on subsequent generations of artists.
The work ‘Think’ from 1962 is an early work that plays a central role in Copley’s oeuvre. Within the framework of a cross word puzzle, we are presented with a series of figures, objects and situations that would consistently recur in his later works. The work constitutes a reflection on his own cosmos of images which he would consistently draw upon.
Copley (1919 – 1996) exhibited at Documenta 5 and 7, Kassel. His work is in private and public collections worldwide. A retrospective exhibition of his work toured from the Stedelijk van Abbe in Eindhoven to Kunsthalle Bern and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris in 1981. In 2016, the Menil Collection in Houston will present a retrospective of his work and a catalogue raisonné will also be published on the occasion.
Corita Kent’s sixth book, ‘Damn Everything but the Circus’ (1970), was produced in hardcover, in a slip-case with all its illustrations reproduced as accompanying posters (presented within the exhibition). Taking it’s title from E.E. Cummings’ ‘i & now & him: NONLECTURE FIVE’ (1953) it quotes: ‘Damn everything but the circus! …damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won’t get into the circle, that won’t enjoy. That won’t throw it’s heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence…’ Kent’s book incorporates, in her own words, ‘a lot of things put together’, including an array of found, historical illustrations and quotes from writers including Albert Camus, John Dewey, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Rainer Maria Rilke, Henry David Thoreau and the singer Joan Baez. The book is at once a celebration of life and a protest aligned with the American civil rights movement of the time.
Kent (1918-1986), was an artist, designer, teacher and nun. For many years she ran an art department within the Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent in Los Angeles. In 1968 she left the religious order and moved to Boston where she continued to work addressing social causes and making art. She produced silkscreen prints for posters, books, advertising and as public art. Her work is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and has been the subject of numerous exhibitions.
David Robilliard’s watercolor drawings are taken from sketchbooks. Their care-free attitude reflects London’s gay scene in the 1980s just prior to the full impact of the AIDS epidemic.
Robilliard (1952 - 1988) was a self-taught artist and poet. After a fleeting appearance as an ‘angry young man’ in the film ‘The World of Gilbert and George’ (1981), he began working for them, procuring models for their photographs. Robilliard died from an AIDS related illness in 1988. His work was subject to two retrospective exhibitions at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 1992 and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 1993.